Posted on 03/12/2004 9:28:47 PM PST by SkyPilot
Barbra Streisand Heads Back to the Big Screen
By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - She may have given up singing in public, but Barbra Streisand (news) hasn't bowed out of the limelight altogether.
The 61-year-old performer is heading back to movie screens for the first time in eight years to play Ben Stiller (news)'s mom in a sequel to the hit comedy "Meet the Parents." A spokesman for Universal Pictures said Friday Streisand is in final negotiations for the role.
The sequel, "Meet the Fockers," is set to go into production April 5 with Jay Roach back as director. The film is slated for release on Dec. 22, the studio spokesman said.
All the principal cast members from "Meet the Parents" -- Stiller, Robert De Niro, Blythe Danner and Teri Polo-- are returning for the sequel, along with Dustin Hoffman, who has been cast as Stiller's father.
Stiller starred in the original box office hit film as accident-prone male nurse Greg Focker, who goes through hell when he visits the childhood home of his intended fiance, Pam Byrnes (Polo) to meet her mother (Danner) and father (De Niro), an overly protective former CIA agent with a lie-detector in the basement. Greg ultimately wins them over.
In the sequel, a clash of cultures ensues when the straight-laced, conservative Byrnes family meets the liberal, relaxed Fockers.
Streisand's last movie performance was in the 1996 feature "The Mirror Has Two Faces," which she produced, directed and starred in opposite Jeff Bridges (news). Before that, she starred in, directed and produced the 1991 drama "The Prince of Tides," with Nick Nolte.
The veteran entertainer won an Academy Award as best actress for her 1968 film debut as Fanny Brice (news) in the musical "Funny Girl," tying the Oscar vote that year with Katharine Hepburn (news) for "The Lion in Winter." Streisand was nominated again for her role opposite Robert Redford (news) in the bittersweet 1973 romantic drama "The Way We Were."
Streisand bid farewell in September 2000 to her sell-out career as a public performer, though she emerged two years later to sing at a Hollywood fund-raiser for the Democratic Party. She released her 58th album, "The Movie Album," last October.
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Babs is box office poison. I can only imagine how she will try to warp this movie into a political/cultural screed to take a cheap shot at "straight-laced" conservatives vs. "relaxed" liberals.
That was not even the point of the original comedy--it was the ironey of an urban male nurse trying to win over a suburban family, and compete with her old boyfriend.
Now--it will be a mess.
Damn shame he didn't have the clout in Hollywood (or the sense) to see the carnage Babs will unload on this movie.
Good one!
The term "Stiller's Mom" reminds me of "Stiffler's Mom"---or even "Stacey's Mom"---I heard she's got it goin on.
Babs playing a Liberal Focker, who would have thought.
The urge to make a statement about this is tempting but would get me in trouble I think.
Lately it looks like people are dumping Streisand albums. There are just so many to wade through in the budget sections these days. The one where she wore the Superman t-shirt used to be almost as common as Whipped Cream and Other Delights but I don't see it so much anymore. Now it is 20 times as many BS albums from all periods of her career.
I don't know if has any relation to her antiwar/antiBush stance but I have noticed this phenomenon.
Memories of a movie deal gone bad
It's the best role that the stupid schmuck, Jimmy, ever had
Memories of a president I hate
The two gay guys who produced it...thought it would be great
Could it be that the Gipper's really loved
And I have my head in my ***
Could it be that I am the one who's wrong
No, that can't be...not me
Memories of the time when I was heard
I would put things on my website...that were so very absurd
In my home there's no glee
No one's obeying me
They won't show the d*mn movie
'Cause the deal's gone bad...the deal's gone bad
Wow, I'm stunned that it took that long for someone to post that! :)
Several years ago at the Oscars, Billy Crystal took a huge jabe at Babs during his opening musical regarding her tyrannical grip on the movie The Prince of Tides. The stories of her shameful treatment of cast members and crew was something that shocked even Hollywood. Crystal sang something like:
"And the beautiful, smart doctor in the novel I dream!"
"Guess what--I am the Director! I get to play Lowenstein!"
The camera panned to Babs at that moment and pure venom spewed from her eyes.
I remember that cover. Even as a testoserone filled boy, I shuddered in revulsion at it. We used to kick it around at parties, and then go stare at my brothers poster of Jackyln Smith.
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